Kerel-pattern assault carrier

"Look at the size of that thing!"

— Edward Buck after an Assault Carrier arrives over New Mombasa.

The Covenant Assault Carrier ^[1] is a Covenant capital ship classification of the Covenant Navy.

Function

These ships possess an expansive hangar bay, capable of transporting large numbers of Seraph fighters, Phantom dropships, boarding craft, and large fleets of Ghosts and Wraiths, along with one to two Scarabs, and - later - the UNSC frigates Forward Unto Dawn and Aegis Fate would dock inside the vessel's launch bay, which shows the vastness of the ships.^[2]

Assault Carriers are also used as Flagships, leading Covenant Fleets into battle. Though designed for planetary combat, they also excel at ship-to-ship combat, possessing multiple pulse laser batteries, plasma torpedo launchers and at least one energy projector.^[3]

Background

The massive launch bay of the Assault Carrier.

Assault Carriers are much larger than CCS-class Battlecruisers and standard Carriers; they are more rare and more heavily armed than either of them. They are armed with at least two Energy Projectors^[3]^[4], as well as plasma torpedo launchers^[5] and pulse-lasers.^[6] They also possess gravity lifts,^[7]^[8] used for ferrying supplies, personnel, and vehicles from the ship and to the planet's surface. From their name, and actions in Halo 2, it would appear that an Assault Carrier is designed to fight through an enemy world's defenses and head right into the planet's atmosphere and drop off its troops.

Regret's carrier over New Mombasa as seen from the Rookie's SOEIV.

Two such crafts led the Prophet of Regret's Fleet to Earth, where they engaged the UNSC Home Fleet in orbit above Africa. The first one, carrying the Prophet himself, managed to penetrate Earth's orbital defenses. The second attempted to follow, but was subsequently destroyed by the Master Chief.

The Prophet's Assault Carrier fled to slipspace, as the UNSC forces were likely to recapture the city of New Mombasa, with the UNSC In Amber Clad following close behind in its slipspace wake, leading Human Forces to the Installation 05

Another Assault Carrier was later repossessed by Rtas 'Vadum and the Sangheili, and became the flagship of the Fleet of Retribution, leading it to Earth in pursuit of a surviving Flood Ship, arriving in time to glass the infected area of the planet. The Shadow of Intent and its escorting Cruisers joined forces with the remnants of the UNSC Navy to launch a joint attack on the Covenant remnant at the Ark, destroying their Fleet and providing a distraction while ground forces engaged the Loyalists that had landed. It later evacuated the UNSC and Sangheili personnel and returned to Earth for a short time before returning to Sanghelios. Only in Halo 2 is the destruction of this kind of ship witnessed; in the Cutscene "Return to the Sender" when Spartan-117 destroyed one of the two Assault Carriers of Prophet of Regret's Fleet with a Covenant Bomb.

Armament

A Carrier glassing New Mombasa.

As some of the larger ships in the Covenant Fleets are often used as fleet flagships, it is necessary for them to be heavily armed. Assault Carriers possess energy projectors which are powerful enough to cut through UNSC capital ships^[9]^[3] on its ventral and dorsal surfaces. They also possess multiple pulse-laser turrets^[10] used for intercepting enemy missiles and fighters, and plasma torpedoes for engaging in ship-to-ship combat and assaulting planetary defenses.

Assault Carriers are also equipped with at least one gravity lift, capable of dispatching troops, personnel, vehicles and equipment to the surface of a planet rather quickly. They also possess a large main hangar, capable of carrying multiple Seraphs^[7] and Banshee fighter crafts, Phantom dropships and boarding crafts, or a UNSC Frigate.^[10] In addition, Assault Carriers possess the ability to launch Drop Pods, tactically delivering Sangheili warriors into areas without resorting to bulky and obvious dropships.^[2] These ships also carry the dreaded Scarab walkers in their holds for quick deployment. Thanks to these innovations, a single Assault Carrier can easily launch large-scale invasions quickly and effectively.

Characteristics

File:1207838135 Bridge.jpg

The bridge of an Assault Carrier.

Assault Carriers, like the vast majority of other Covenant ships, are characterized by their bulbous, whale-like front, sleek silhouette and pale white/blue hull. However, they also tend to be characterized by their unique swollen and bulbous "hooked" bow section that is frequently characterized to be similar to the head of a whale and would (theoretically) be a massive weakness as the ship could be blown in half comparatively easily, given its shields were down. Rather than possessing multiple smaller hangar bays, like smaller cruisers, Assault Carriers use a single, gargantuan hangar bay for storage of fighters, dropships, boarding craft and small capital ships, at least 500 meters long, 320 meters wide and 120 meters high. In Halo 3, however, there is a second hangar bay visible, near the stern of the cruiser, above the main engines. For propulsion, Assault Carriers rely on large deuterium-tritium fusion reactors, housed in cavernous chambers,^[3] which power the ship's vital systems, as well as the three aft-mounted plasma drives that propel the ship, capable of operating in a vacuum or in an atmospheric environment. They also employ non-reactive gravity drives for standard maneuvering and hovering above the surface of a planet, resisting its gravity.

The Assault Carrier is also fitted with Modular Dispersal Technology, giving it the ability to completely detach sections of its outer hull as well as whole corridors, as seen during the Battle of the Unnamed Star System. They can also separate into two distinct sections which leaves the rear section (with the main engines) behind and allows the fore-section to move away with previously hidden engines, the fore section (and likely the rear) are still slipspace capable. Unlike its unorthodox means of use by the Fleet Master in an attempt to disperse the advancing Spartan forces, the dispersal feature is actually intended to be used in order to detach sections of the Carrier that sustained extensive damage in order to increase the chances of saving what is left of the ship and its crew for future use.

The UNSC Frigate Forward Unto Dawn is small enough to fit into the Shadow of Intent's Hangar. Therefore, it would be plausible that the Assault Carrier could easily carry small Covenant ships, such as a light Cruiser although the advantages of this would be few.

Known Assault Carriers

Clarity of Faith
Shadow of Intent
The Prophet of Regret's Carrier
A second Carrier, possibly escorting Regret's Carrier, survived the Human defense when attacking Earth, but was destroyed by Master Chief using a Covenant bomb intended to destroy the Orbital Defense Platform Cairo
The Assault Carrier of the Third Fleet of Glorious Consequence (most likely the Resplendent Fervor)

Trivia

The supposed second hangar bay of an Assault Carrier.

An early draft of Halo 2 was intended to feature a level tentatively called Covenant ship, in which John-117 would board an assault carrier and destroy it from within.^[11]
In the modern US Navy, the term "Assault Carrier" refers to the Amphibious Assault Ship, which is used to transport troops over water and offload them via hovercraft or helicopter.
In Halo 2, Regret's carrier has visible structures on the surface above the engines. However, in Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, these structures are not visible, but are rather obscured or replaced by what seems to be a second hangar bay.

Gallery

An overview of the assault carrier.
Covenant Assault Carrier FanArt.jpg

An Assault Carrier entering slipspace.
The Prophet of Regret's own Assault Carrier hangs ominously in the clouds over New Mombasa.
Numerous Assault Carriers are seen above the skies around the portal to the Ark in the Halo 3 Announcement Trailer.
The Shadow of Intent seen from the front.
ACFrigate.jpg

A UNSC Frigate flying under an Assault Carrier. Note the size of the Assault Carrier and its hangar.
A side view of the Assault Carrier Shadow of Intent. Note that there is a second hangar above the engines at the stern of the ship.
A top-down view of the Assault Carrier Shadow of Intent. Note that there is a second hangar above the engines at the stern of the ship.
Assault Carrier scale.
The Clarity of Faith seen from the front.
The bridge of the Shadow of Intent.
Another image of an Assault Carrier's interior.